01.06.2017 Views

UWE Bristol Engineering showcase 2015

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Max Floyd Noronha<br />

MEng Aerospace Systems <strong>Engineering</strong><br />

Project Supervisor<br />

Dr. Pritesh Narayan<br />

Design and Development of an Android application to automate the<br />

collection of Flight Mode Data<br />

INTRODUCTION<br />

This project focuses around the android<br />

built smartphones in the design and<br />

development of an android application<br />

to automate flight data acquisition in<br />

order to calculate the various dynamic<br />

flight modes of an aircraft in flight.<br />

As part of the ‘Flight Mechanics B’<br />

assignment in year 3 (Bachelors), the<br />

task was to monitor and record the<br />

flight data in-flight using flight test<br />

worksheets in order to manually<br />

calculate the dynamic flight modes of<br />

an aircraft, i.e. Roll mode, Phugoid<br />

Mode, etc., to eventually determine the<br />

dynamic stability of the aircraft. This<br />

project was taken up in order to<br />

simplify the process of flight mode<br />

calculation through the use of<br />

smartphone technology. This involves<br />

making use of java programming<br />

software to create an android<br />

application which enables the user to<br />

automatically calculate the various<br />

dynamic flight modes by a click of a<br />

button. This not only adheres to the<br />

safety requirements in-flight but also<br />

eliminates the need for the pilot to<br />

manually record the data allowing the<br />

pilot to concentrate on flying the<br />

aircraft.<br />

RESEARCH<br />

This project’s research investigates the different sensors<br />

on-board the smartphones which could aid with the<br />

relevant collection of the flight data as well as how<br />

sensor fusion and filtering techniques can affect the<br />

acquisition of the raw flight data.<br />

Which sensors included in most Smartphones can be<br />

used to simulate the dynamic flight modes?<br />

The various sensors included in smartphone devices<br />

need to be investigated in order to determine which<br />

flight modes can be calculated via smartphone<br />

technology. Smartphone device have some limitations<br />

in terms of calculating airspeed data. This will be<br />

investigated to determine cost-effective solutions to<br />

counter this issue. Different sensors provide different<br />

forms of data, hence investigation into which data form<br />

would be useful for this project in order to get the final<br />

output for each flight mode will also be conducted.<br />

Can Sensor Fusion be implemented to improve fight<br />

data acquisition?<br />

Investigation will have to be conducted on sensor fusion<br />

methodologies to fuse the data acquired from the<br />

independent sensors to improve the accuracy of the<br />

flight raw flight data to further increase the accuracy of<br />

the output. Filtering techniques will also be investigated<br />

in order to reduce the amount of background<br />

interference affecting the flight data<br />

SUMMARY OF RESULTS<br />

To summarise the tests conducted, similar<br />

instances were encountered where the device did<br />

not measure all the acceleration forces to carry<br />

out the computations for output, which led to the<br />

conclusion that the accelerometer’s sensitivity was<br />

too low. In some tests, vibration influenced a key<br />

role in interfering with the data such as in the<br />

aircraft and with the robot arm, hence further<br />

investigation on how to filter out these vibrations<br />

via a band-stop filter will have to be carried out.<br />

Through the multiple testing equipment used to<br />

test and validate the android application, a<br />

number of issues were discovered which brought<br />

about the opportunity to address them and<br />

improve the functionality of the application. After<br />

implementing the required adjustments to the<br />

application’s program code, it can be concluded<br />

that if the test in an actual aircraft was to be<br />

repeated, the outputs computed would be more<br />

reliable and accurate.<br />

Amplitude (°)<br />

8<br />

6<br />

4<br />

2<br />

0<br />

-2<br />

-4<br />

-6<br />

-8<br />

-10<br />

Vibration Test Results<br />

1<br />

13<br />

25<br />

37<br />

49<br />

61<br />

73<br />

85<br />

97<br />

109<br />

121<br />

133<br />

145<br />

157<br />

169<br />

181<br />

193<br />

205<br />

217<br />

229<br />

241<br />

253<br />

Time (ms)<br />

FUTURE WORK<br />

• Improve accelerometer’s sensitivity<br />

• Employ filtering techniques to attenuate unwanted<br />

vibrations<br />

• Improve flight data acquisition by fusing<br />

accelerometer and gyroscope sensors<br />

• Integration a anemometer with the Flight recorder<br />

to obtain airspeed data<br />

Y<br />

X<br />

Project summary<br />

This project was aimed to determine the dynamic<br />

stability of an aircraft through the use of smartphone<br />

technology by designing and developing an android<br />

application that was capable of automating the<br />

acquisition of raw flight data using the smartphone’s<br />

sensors. Extensive research was carried out<br />

investigating the sensors included within the<br />

smartphone devices so as to determine which<br />

dynamic flight modes can be determined through<br />

smartphone technology. Additionally, to improve the<br />

quality of the data, investigation on various sensor<br />

fusion methodologies and filtering techniques was<br />

conducted.<br />

Project Objectives<br />

The aim of this project is to determine an aircrafts’<br />

dynamic stability when it experiences a disturbance<br />

in the air. This project looks in to the design and<br />

development of an android application which can<br />

automate the acquisition of raw flight data through<br />

the use of smartphone sensors and subsequently<br />

calculate the various dynamic aircraft flight modes.<br />

Project Conclusion<br />

Due to multiple issues encountered relating to the<br />

application not properly computing the output for<br />

the flight modes, the program will have to be delved<br />

into more deeply on how to increase the<br />

accelerometer’s sensitivity and improve the<br />

functionality of the application to produce more<br />

reliable and accurate results. Also by using a bandstop<br />

filter, the quality of the flight data acquired can<br />

be greatly increased by blocking out the unnecessary<br />

vibration frequencies. From the observations and<br />

analysis made during the testing phase, it can be<br />

concluded that the android application developed<br />

thus far requires further work to enable improved<br />

functionality is diverse environments.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!